


Spider-Minted

by Neutralfan



Series: A Tower of Fun! [4]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Assume all of the team is present, Experimentation, F/M, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Hurt/Comfort, Male Bonding, Medical reactions, Peppermint, Phil Coulson mentioned - Freeform, Spiders, Tony and Bucky become bros, aunt may - Freeform, leo fitz mentioned - Freeform, mostly from tony, no one dies, not everyone speaks though, there will be bad decisions, whoops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 16:56:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17964437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neutralfan/pseuds/Neutralfan
Summary: What happens when Tony and Bucky try to see how spider like Peter is?





	Spider-Minted

**Author's Note:**

> HI! Please read and enjoy!  
> I do not own any marvel characters or anything else that is recognizable in this fic. If I did, Deadpool would have taken care of Thanos, and the rest of the movie would have been domestic Avengers shorts. 
> 
> Spoilers!  
> *Ok, if you're sensitive to medical references/have a traumatic past with allergic reactions, please proceed at your own risk as there is an allergic reaction in this.*

Tony’s lab was a mess. He had spent the last week at conventions, meetings, and Avengers business. His creative side had been cooped up and been sidelined to only allowed out for snarky comments.  
Now he was able to let loose and the lab looking like a disaster area was a side effect. As was the loud music that was blaring over the speakers. 

The music was so loud that he didn’t hear the approaching of someone who very much didn’t want to startle or otherwise anger the engineer. 

Bucky Barns had only been living in the tower for around a month. During which he and Tony had been actively avoiding each other. That’s not to say that they couldn’t be around the other person. Just that neither party wanted to have any kind of awkward conversations. Especially after the bomb shell of a reveal about Tony’s parents deaths. 

That had stung. In more ways than one. 

Tony hadn’t wanted to allow Bucky into the tower. Not even as a visitor. 

But after a lot of discussions between himself, the team, his therapist, and surprisingly, T’Challa; he had been convinced to allow the former prisoner of war to live in the tower, on a probationary situation.  
Keeping himself busy he really hadn’t seen much of the ex-super solder, and he preferred it that way. 

“Mr. Stark?” Tony yelped and nearly set himself on fire with the butane torch that he’d been using to solder some parts together. He whipped around intent on firing some choice words at the speaker. The words died on his lips. His mouth went dry.  
Barns was in his lab, and he was holding a tablet. 

Bucky was dressed in worn jeans with a plane t-shirt underneath a plaid fleece shirt that was left unbuttoned, but had the sleeves rolled up. Well one sleeve was rolled up, his metal arm had been confiscated by S.h.i.e.l.d after the government raised a fuss about it. That sleeve was pinned up at the shoulder.  
The dude needed a prosthetic. Tony realized as he looked over the man. 

“Sorry, I- I’ll go.” Bucky said, nervously as he started to back up. 

“Was there something you wanted?” Tony said, annoyed but curious as to why Barns had sought him out. If he had a problem he tended to seek out one of the others, mostly Capscicle, or Barton. Why he sought out the former was beyond him though. 

He seemed to hesitate, “Did you know that spiders have an aversion to peppermint?” 

“You came down here,” Tony said slowly eyebrows raised, to regale me with a random fact? About spiders. I have people who spray for them, I can’t see as to why you’d feel the need to tell me this. Specifically when I’m handling dangerous equipment that could, oh I don’t know light the entire tower on fire!” Tony’s voice had risen to the point he was almost shouting. 

Bucky was slowly backing up, mumbling as he did, “Sorry, I didn’t mean any trouble. I was just worried about Peter.” 

That got his attention, “What do you mean? What does peppermint have to do with Peter?” 

He’d never admit it, but the billionaire, playboy, genius had a soft spot for the young hero. He would do anything and everything for the kid. If the said kid would let him that is. He seemed stubborn about earning his accomplishments. 

“It’s just-” Bucky started, his eyes darting around as if expecting an attack from the screwdriver on one of the nearby work tops. “He’s got the powers of a spider, could he have the weakness of a spider too?” 

Tony blinked, his eyes widening as he considered the implications of what Barns had just said. 

“What if one of our enemies finds out and tries to use it on him? Shouldn’t we be prepared?” Bucky’s confidence had risen but only slightly. “I thought since you built him the suit and everything that you could make an adjustment or something? You know to keep him safe, he’s a fun kid” Bucky’s voice lowered, “I’d hate for something to happen to him.” 

“Jarvis.” 

“Sir?” 

“I need peppermint plants, and anything peppermint related that could potentially be used against a person.” He looked at Bucky, who seemed surprised, “We need to test this and make sure that it can’t be used against Peter.” 

Bucky gave a small grin that reached his eyes. Prompting a warm feeling in the inventors gut that he wasn’t use to feeling towards many people. 

“No one can know about this, specifically Spangles, and Pepper. If they found out they would stop us.” 

Bucky nodded setting his tablet down before reaching out to offer a hand shake to seal the deal.  
Tony reached out and took his hand in a firm grip and shook it. 

 

A week later Tony’s lab was covered with unboxed peppermint plants, peppermint candies in a variety of types, and a box of peppermint oil was set on his desk where he and Bucky were examining it. 

Tony wasn’t sure about how this experiment was going to work, but as he planned the testing phase he realized that he was going to need some assistance. He also knew that getting Bruce to help wasn’t going to happen. Nor could he recruit anyone else. (the one most likely to help was that Scottish kid from S.h.i.e.l.d, but Coulson wasn’t likely to approve his help) So Barns was his only option, unless he wanted the experiment stopped before it even started. 

Tony put the bottle of oil back into the box thinking of how they could distribute it. 

“Think that a squirt bottle would work?” Asked Barns as he straitened up from the table. 

“Maybe,” he said, in a non committal tone. 

Bucky surveyed the workshop, “What time is Peter coming over?” 

“After school, so we’ll need to get all these things set up and out before he gets here.” Tony glanced at his watch, “So four hours.” 

Bucky nodded, a smile on his face as he watched Tony pull up a map of the common room and various areas where they’d be placing the peppermint plants marked with red X’s. 

“OK you’ll place the plants in the common room while everyone is out, and I’ll set them out in the hallway. Got it?” 

“Yep.” 

 

When Peter arrived he had no idea that he was being carefully monitored by Jarvis as he made his way to Tony’s lab. He was excited to be allowed into the lab, to the point that he nearly face-planted by tripping over a potted plant. 

“Whoah,” he looked up to find Tony watching him intently, “Hi Mr. Stark, sorry about that.” He gestured to the plant. “Redecorating?” Peter asked as he noticed that there were several plants scattered around the room. 

“You could say that, I’m trying something new. I wanted to see if adding some plants to the tower would help with the overall atmosphere.” 

“Cool.” Peter came into the lab proper and set down his backpack next to the old couch that Tony kept in his lab. He then noticed Bucky. 

He hadn’t really interacted with the other too often outside of field work, but he assumed that he was the quieter version of Steve Rogers. 

“Hi Mr. Barns.” Bucky looked up from the tablet he was holding to nod at the youngest member of the Avengers. 

“Don’t mind the Sargent, he’s down here avoiding a loud racing game upstairs.” Tony said with out looking at the pair behind him, “so should we get started?” 

 

“Well,” Tony said after Peter had left, “that was a wast, he didn’t even notice the peppermint, and I now have to explain why I bought so many plants to Pepper.” 

Bucky looked up at the inventor, he had been watching Peter leave on the security footage, “Maybe he did react and we didn’t notice?” 

Tony snorted, “Jarvis is the most sophisticated monitoring program ever invented. I doubt that he would miss anything.” The AI did not chime in as there was no need. 

“Then we try something else?” 

“Yeah, maybe when T’Challa comes to visit. We can offer the candies.” 

“Or we could always get a spray bottle?” 

Tony grimaced, “I was looking up the safety stuff for that oil, we should only use that idea as a last resort. It can burn your skin if you dilute it in water.” 

Bucky made a face before nodding. They would be saving that for a last resort, and even then they probably wouldn’t use it. 

But then, this is Tony ‘I built anamatronic robots from a video game to get revenge’ Stark. 

 

They waited a few more weeks, during that time everyone had gotten use to the peppermint plants, and Jarvis had noticed that there was a slight reaction from Peter when he visited the tower now. Almost like a panic response as his breathing started to pick up at times during his visits. But it didn’t seem noticeable to anyone but the AI. 

T’Challa was visiting for a training session, something that Tony had insisted Peter be apart of. Bucky too, he’d even made him a new flesh colored prosthetic arm to wear and test out during the op. 

“There’s candy, help your selves.” Tony had offered of the peppermint candy set out on the counter, watching to see if Peter would take any. The teen did look over the candies but came away with a disappointed look. But Steve called for everyone to assemble in the training room before he could follow up on the reaction. 

 

That training session had quickly turned into a mission, when S.h.i.e.l.d called and asked for assistance with a rouge ‘Life Model Decoy’ that was tearing their base apart. 

They had smoked the robot and had now returned to the tower were everyone was resting and talking about what they wanted to order from the local fast food joints. 

“Let’s turn this into a pizza and movie thingy,” Clint suggested tiredly from his chair. A wave of approval met this suggestion. 

Except from Peter he had to asks his aunt if he could stay. 

“No problem, I’ll give her a call and ask for you.” Tony said as he stood up pulling out his phone. “Jarvis can you do the pizza thing while I get permission from Ms Parker?” 

“Of course Sir.” 

“See? No problems.” 

Tony had disappeared at some point during the movie, they had let Wanda choose, apparently Leonardo DiCaprio wasn’t someone who could hold the eccentric man’s attention for long. 

The end credits were rolling as Bucky and Steve were arguing about wether or not Jack could have survived, when Tony reappeared. A water gun in hand. 

“Peter!” The teen turned only to find his face assaulted with a fresh smelling liquid that he recognized. 

“Gahh!” He yelled screwing his eyes shut to keep the liquid from running into his eyes. An itchy burning sensation overcoming his senses, this included his spidy sense as it kicked into high gear. 

Everyone was yelling at Tony but Peter had a more pressing problem, “WHAT DID YOU JUST SPRAY ME WITH?” 

He knew. But he wanted to be sure. 

“Uhh, peppermint oil. I wanted to see if you reacted to it the same way a normal spider would.” 

“@#$#%,” Peter said, “I need my backpack. I’m allergic to peppermint oil.” 

Bruce brought him the backpack, “What do you need Peter?” 

“My epipen it should be in the front zipper pocket.” Peters words were starting to be harder to understand as his lips were swelling. His breathing was also becoming more frantic.  
“I was wondering what was causing me to feel bad when I came over.” 

 

“I thought the supper healing would have taken care of allergies?” Tony said, dumbly. 

“It might prevent him from dying, Stark, but it can’t stop a biological attack.” Bruce spat at his science bro, his eyes taking on a green ring as he did. Hulk liked the ‘small spider’. 

“Shoot.” Eyes turned to Bucky who looked horrified as Bruce administered Peter’s epipen for him. 

“We need to get him down to the medical floor so we can monitor his reaction. Stark eighty-six the peppermint plants.” Bruce bit out as Clint and T’Challa helped Peter to his feet, not trusting the teen to support himself. 

“Peter, I’m sorry. Please don’t tell your Aunt.” 

“I’m telling my Aunt.” Peter said as he was helped out of the common room. 

 

Tony was sulking in his lab. Pepper had revoked his ability to purchase anything without her clearing it after the peppermint incident. Which meant he couldn’t buy her birthday present and keep it a surprise.

Bucky was also having his purchases monitored for his part in the incident.  
Peter had forgiven them both, he understood their curiosity. He had also taken the time to explain that he had always been allergic to the herb. 

“My mom, I’m told, had this hand cream that she liked that had distilled peppermint in it, and one day after I was born she used it and I stopped breathing after she’d been playing with me. The doctors saved my life and then ran allergy tests. Peppermint is the only thing I’m allergic to.” 

It had been fun, Tony surmised, until Peter had gotten hurt that is, studding if his spidy senses would kick in and have him react to the plant. The best thing that came out of it? He’d made peace with Barns. 

The door to the lab opened and the aforementioned man walked in holding his tablet in his prosthetic hand. “Hey Tony, could you help me find something? I’d ask Steve but,” he trailed off, “it’s a computer game and I’m afraid he’ll turn it into a prank.” 

Tony laughed, “Sure Barns. What game are we talking about?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, please leave a comment below if you liked it.


End file.
